I am still alive (kdev-go)

[Francis Herne]

On Tuesday, 6 November 2018 15:30:24 GMT Sinuhé Téllez Rivera wrote:
> Hello Kdevelop-devel:
> 
> I am still alive, but I am learning so I can work in the grammar.
> 
> I am wondering why the kdev-go plugin development required a version of
> KDevelop that is not released yet.
> 
> In my humble opinion (for the plugins at least) the requirement of KDevelop
> should be a released one.
> 
> So the plugin can be developed in a stable version.
> 
> In that way, it could be ease to more people to collaborate.
> 
> Thanks

[aside] Currently kdev-go requires KDevelop 5.3-beta, which has now in fact 
been released, but that's a fairly recent occurrence and not usual.
https://www.kdevelop.org/news/kdevelop-5280-released

It's normal for the master branch of plugins to require KDevelop master.

(Stable branches remain based on the corresponding KDevelop release branch, 
but as kdev-go has never yet had a stable release there are no such branches).

There are a few reasons for this:
 - New features in a plugin may require changes to the core KDevelop code, 
adding new interfaces, etc.; such changes can only be made in KDevelop's 
master branch, which will then be required.

 - The reverse is also true: improvements to KDevelop's APIs can require 
changes to the plugins which use them. The changed version will then not be 
compatible with older KDevelop versions.

(if those changes weren't made, the plugin would then not be compatible with 
the /next/ KDevelop release and couldn't be released alongside it).

 - Many developers of plugins do unrelated work on the core KDevelop code, 
which can only be committed to master. To develop, test and use those features 
requires that KDevelop master be installed; it would be possible but 
inconvenient to use an older version in parallel to develop and use the 
plugins.


To effectively develop a plugin, it's very helpful - almost required - to have 
a copy of the KDevelop sources for reference in any case. Once you have the 
ability to build a plugin, it's not dramatically harder to build KDevelop 
itself at the same time (although on my laptop it does take nearly an hour, if 
ccache isn't helping...).

 - Francis